If Germany and the United States have reached somewhat similar
compromises on abortion policy, they have arrived there by quite different historical paths. 7 In this chapter we trace the paths by which law
and policy were shaped in each country over the past century. Perhaps
the most fundamental difference is that Germany went through intense
debates on abortion in the first third of the twentieth century while the
United States witnessed what Luker (1984) aptly labeled a “century of
silence. ”

Abortion emerged (or, in the case of Germany, reemerged) as a controversial public issue in the last third of the twentieth century. We will
review the “critical discourse moments”that have occurred in both
countries during the contemporary period. Critical discourse moments
are events that stimulate news articles and commentary in various
public forums–in this case, especially legislative actions and court decisions. 8 These events sometimes change the discursive opportunity
structure and, therefore, necessarily require the would-be players to
interpret the event in terms of their preferred frame and, in some cases,
to reevaluate their discursive strategy.

PROLOGUE

UNITED STATES

In the first two-thirds of the nineteenth century, abortion was
largely unregulated in the United States, especially before “quick-

Rucht (1994, Chapter Eight) provides a fuller comparative history. Other good historical accounts for the United States are available in Burns (2002), Luker (1984), and
Solinger (1998) and for Germany in Jochimsen (1971) and Grossman (1995).

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